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HSK 3 — Reading Comprehension for the HSK Exam

HSK 3 introduces Reading as a substantial component alongside Listening and Writing. Candidates read notices, short articles, and simple emails. With 600 vocabulary words, HSK 3 candidates can handle everyday reading contexts in China. The writing section requires handwriting or typing short responses.

Locale-specific study guides

Pass-rate data, regulatory context, and study tips for HSK 3 — Reading Comprehension all change by candidate locale. Pick your context:

Common failure modes

These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.

!Guessing the meaning of unfamiliar characters from context without recognising the radical
!Misreading characters with similar stroke structures (己/已/巳)
!Not recognising common Chinese compound words formed from two known characters

Study tips

1Learn the 100 most common Chinese radicals — they provide meaning clues for 60%+ of Chinese characters.
2Practice reading short Chinese texts daily: WeChat public accounts, Simple Chinese Wikipedia.
3Build compound word recognition: know 大学 (university) from 大 (big) + 学 (study/school).

Sample HSK HSK 3 — Reading Comprehension questions

These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real HSK questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.

1
读短文后选择正确答案: "今天天气很好，我想去公园玩。" 这个人今天想做什么？(After reading, choose the correct answer: "Today the weather is very good, I want to go to the park." What does this person want to do today?)
- A在家休息 (Stay at home to rest)
- B去公园玩 (Go to the park to play)Correct
- C去工作 (Go to work)
- D去商店买东西 (Go shopping)
Why this answer?
"我想去公园玩" = I want (想/xiǎng) to go (去/qù) to the park (公园/gōngyuán) to play (玩/wán). The correct answer directly matches the stated intention in the text.

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